Best of Artemis, week ending 10th January 2016

Here are the ten most popular news articles, week ending 10th January 2016, covering catastrophe bonds, ILS, reinsurance capital and related risk transfer topics. To ensure you never miss a thing subscribe to the weekly Artemis email newsletter updates.Top ten most viewed articles on Artemis.bm, week ending 10th January 2016:

Willis Towers Watson: a risk & capital connector in re/insurance? The merger between insurance and reinsurance broker Willis Group and global professional services firm Towers Watson has officially completed today, with the newly joined 39,000 person company now having an interesting, perhaps compelling opportunity in re/insurance and ILS.

UK storm & flood loss could near £2.5bn ($3.7bn), hours clause a factor Insurance and reinsurance industry losses from UK winter storms and the resulting flooding that has been experienced in recent weeks could reach as much as £2.5 billion ($3.7bn), according to analysts at UBS, but the burden for the reinsurance market is uncertain with the hours clause a factor.

Reinsurance sector no longer earning its cost of equity: Bernstein The reinsurance sector in 2016 has now seen pricing fall so far that it is no longer earning its cost of equity, according to analysts from Bernstein. But at the same time, the analysts believe further softening is ahead, as “Earnings are not yet painful enough.”

This report reviews the catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities (ILS) market at the end of the fourth-quarter of 2015, looking at the $1.525 billion of new risk capital issued and the composition of the cat bond & ILS transactions completed during Q4 2015. The report also includes a review of the full year 2015 issuance and commentary from co-editor GC Securities.